The present invention relates to an automatic transaction machine (ATM) installed such that an operation section thereof is exposed on an outer wall of a building.
The ATM of this type is constructed as shown in FIG. 1. An operation section 304 has a vertical operation panel 302 disposed to be parallel to an outer wall surface 301 of a building and a horizontal operation panel 303 disposed to be perpendicular to the outer wall surface 301. A flat shutter 305 is disposed to protect the machine against wind, rain and dust, as well as burglars. The shutter 305 is housed in a housing when it is open, and when it is closed, those portions of the operation section 304 which include a card insertion port 306 (and bankbook insertion port) are enclosed and protected by the shutter 305.
However, in the ATM having the structure described above, since a flat shutter is used, a large space is required for the shutter to be housed in the housing, thus wasting space inside the housing and making a compact machine difficult to obtain. Furthermore, since the shutter is closed at the end of each transaction under the control of a timer, a customer who is not well acquainted with the operation may insert his hand between the shutter 305 and the horizontal operation panel 303. The conventional ATM thus has a problem from the viewpoint of safety. In order to solve this problem, a foreign matter detector may be arranged in the vicinity of the path of the shutter to detect foreign matter and thus prevent movement of the shutter. However, if the customer forgets to remove his card or bankbook from the appropriate insertion port, or if he places his belongings on the horizontal operation panel so that they are detected by the foreign matter detector, the shutter will be kept open, thus degrading the reliability of the machine.